Thursday, 13 October 2005

42 US states have laws allowing for offenders under the age of 18 to be sentenced to jail for life with no possibility of parole.

A report by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said such prisoners - numbering at least 2,225 in the US - must have access to parole processes. The 157-page report, The Rest of Their Lives: Life without Parole for Child Offenders in the United States, is the first national study examining the practice of trying children as adults and sentencing them to life in adult prisons without the possibility of parole.

The report says that in the rest of the world the punishment is largely outlawed. there are no more than 12 young offenders serving life without parole. The practice is outlawed in many countries and by international law, under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The US and Somalia are the only two countries that have not ratified the treaty, the rights groups said.